FFFADmelbourne

FFFAD · @FFFADmelbourne

4th Nov 2015 from TwitLonger

Parents, kids, and feminists stage ‘pram jam’ at DIBP and refuse to leave until Abyan is resettled in Australia.

Media Release: 4th November, 2015

Pro-refugee supporters, including parents, babies, children, pregnant mothers, and
friends are staging a ‘pram jam’ by occupying the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) and will stay until removed by police. Families, Friends and Feminists Against Detention (FFFAD) are acting in solidarity with women and families on Nauru.

Their demands are that Abyan be allowed to permanently resettle in Australia, sexual violence against refugees stop and that offshore processing is brought to an end.

FFFAD organiser Gabrielle de Vietri, mother of a 14-month old daughter, says, “Rape is not a ‘racket’ Mister Dutton. Asylum seekers have a right to continue to seek asylum in Australia. Instead of providing safety we're allowing women who should be part of Australia's future to be raped and tortured. Abyan should be resettled in Australia immediately away from living side by side with her perpetrator.”

Another FFFAD organizer, Karoline Morwitzer, says that “FFFAD are staying here today until police remove us. We are committed to ongoing civil disobedience on this issue until we end offshore processing and mandatory detention. A line was crossed and we are reclaiming our humanity back again. We are calling on all refugee supporters to refuse to cooperate with this system, just as Nurses and Doctors are doing in Melbourne and Sydney and faith based groups, such as Love Makes A Way, are doing across the country.”

Karoline Morwitzer went on to state that “Dutton’s proposal for a third country resettlement program in Kyrgystan indicates that this system of detention is cracking and breaking under the weight of its own ineptitude and failures. Refugees are not safe in Nauru and Manus Island. They never have been. They have no future there. They do not want to be resettled there. We have the capacity, money, and ability to resettle refugees in Australia. The government just lacks the moral courage.”

Gabrielle de Vietri says: “I want my daughter to grow up within a community that advocates for empathy, kindness and solidarity. She needs to know she can speak up when she sees her government acting negligently and peacefully demonstrate to change things for the better. ”

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